🧭 How the Navy Creates Culture and Behavior Change

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Here’s Where We Are Headed Today:

• Dr. Kevin Elko on Habits

• How to Create Real Behavior Change

• Great Posts of the Week

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How to Create Lasting Change

Today, we are looking at the process of creating behavior change whether it’s a culture change within a team or individual change.

Why this matters: To grow as an organization or person, you need to learn how to change your behaviors. To accomplish any new goal, you need to learn how to get uncomfortable and create lasting change. It’s easy to change for one day or one week, but how do you make it sustainable? How do you create a new identity out of it?

What the experts say: Today’s post is based off inspiration from Navy Captain L. David Marquet’s story about how he turned around the USS Santa Fe. The book (Turn the Ship Around!) is a masterclass on culture building and how to create a leader-leader structure where everyone is a leader. Today, we’re going to talk about 5 mechanisms they used for creating lasting behavior change.

1. Act your way to new thinking - Captain Marquet was trying to get people to be proud of working on the USS Santa Fe. In doing so, he instituted the three-name rule to greet all visitors. They would say the visitor’s name, their name, and the boat’s name. Captain Marquet said, “When you’re trying to change employees’ behaviors, you have basically two approaches to choose from:

   • Change your own thinking and hope this leads to new behavior.

   • Change your behavior and hope this leads to new thinking.”

2. The power of words - Your words are powerful, and your language can change how you think about your behaviors and yourself. Captain Marquet was trying to move away from centralized behavior so he looked for a way for everyone to take ownership. In that process, he had people start using power verbs like “I intend to” and “I plan to” to signify that they weren’t looking for top-down decisions to be made for them, but they were acting with ownership and just looking for sign off.

3. Live your core value - Captain Marquet embedded a growth-mindset into his culture by making “We Learn” a core value. He added it to everything they do, including their ship’s creed. He explained what it meant, how to emphasize it, and why it mattered. He chose “learn” instead of “train” because learning is active, while training is passive.

4. Begin with the end in mind - This provides clarity and direction for you and your team. It means setting goals, planning, and creating a vision of what you want. Captain Marquet would ask 3 questions:

   • How far in the future are you thinking for (yourself and) your organization?

   • How will you know if you’ve accomplished your goals?

   • Are you measuring the things you need to be?

5. Continually implement and repeat the message - Your brain needs a reminder of what is important and why it is important. Continuity builds and grows exponentially as you keep reminding yourself and others what matters. Captain Marquet said, “Continually and consistently repeat the message is a mechanism for competence.”

So what does the data say on habit formation? It confirms what the Captain says above. A 1999 study by Peter Golliwitzer found that specific "If-Then" plans significantly increased the likelihood of people achieving goals.

Participants with these intentions had higher success rates in goal achievement compared to control groups. By consistently performing the desired behaviors, implementation intentions helped people form habits and sustain behavior changes.

So how can you implement?

1. Identify your core values - Identify the core values that will guide you or your organization toward achieving its goals. Ensure that these values are lived and demonstrated daily.

2. Begin with the end in mind - Clearly define your goals and envision the outcomes you desire. Create a plan and consider what it will take to achieve these goals, the challenges along the way, and define what success looks like.

3. Act your way to new thinking - Think daily habits.

   • Implement behaviors that reflect the new thinking you want to instill. Create specific actions that you can take to embody the new culture and mindset.

   • Think about If-Then actions you can take to help with goal formation and what you want.

4. Change your language - Review your language and your self-talk before and after performing these activities. Look to words of ownership and active verbs.

5. Repeat the message - Review, reflect, and repeat the message. Your body needs time to adjust and perform better over time.

Helpful Links:

• Habits Explained (by James Clear and Kobe Bryant)

• How to Build a Great Culture

Great Posts from the Week

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